You really should register.

That beign said, most of the game programming jobs are on the West coast. Not all of them, but most of them. If you really are interested, you might try getting in touch with a recruiter out there. With so many game companies there, you can find some who specialize only in game placement. This is what I did, and it worked out well.

From what I''ve seen, game development companies seem to be spread out all over. Sure, a lot of the bigger, more well known ones seem to be centered in California and Texas, and the concentration in those places is higher, but I''d be surprised if there isn''t one relatively close to you. I was shocked to find out there were 10 here in Salt Lake (a couple of them quite large).

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Original post by I-Shaolin
If you really are interested, you might try getting in touch with a recruiter out there.

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If you do this, I VERY HIGHLY recommend Barbara Walter. I''ve dealt with quite a few recruiters in the past, and she is the best I''ve encountered, by far. She recruits solely for the game industry. You can get contact information for here here.

OK, I finally registered. I''m "the poster formerly known as CNY" ;-) heh heh...

Now I have no excuse but to start participating more! (instead of just lurking on the edges)

Anyway, thanks for the link to the web site. I''ll have to bookmark it. Even though I''ve been involved in some pretty intense business apps, I''m still learning a lot right now about game programming. I should probably wait until I have a few more small projects under my belt. I''m doing the standard Tetris, Breakout, PacMan, side-scroller game progression thing that I''ve heard people talking about on this and other sites... I''m also adding in Multiplayer and (very small) 3D games to the list so I can get more experience with different facets of game programming. I figure I''ll be able to contribute to a game company a lot more if I have some tangible experience. And maybe it will increase the salary a small bit considering I''ll be a newbie in the field.

As far as jobs being near by - I remember the makers of Wizardry were a couple hours away. But when I last looked up on SirTech''s web site, it looked like they moved over the border into Canada... I''ve also seen some being advertised near NYC and Boston (both around 6 hours away). I think there may be been a company developing color game-boy games near by too, but I don''t know if I''m as interested in something like that. It''s definitely something that I have to research more if/when I''m ready to take the plunge. If I were going to move though (outside of Syracuse), I would say either south towards N Carolina (I''m sick of the constant snow here!) or the west coast...

Anyway, thanks again!
Deep

No problem. I''m glad I can help.

I program for a credit union. This is my first programming job, I've only been here a year, and I went from 28k (starting) to almost 50k. Some of the other people here make around 60-65k.
The politics here are pretty bad, like any company, but you don't need to get upset about them. Who cares? As long as you have work, ignore what they do with your program.
This work IS chalanging though. Basically, I hack our vender's code (yes, we have source! It's an interpreted language), try to figure out what they're doing, then I patch/modify/attach code to make it do what they want. All without any documentation.

One of the best things about working here is the job security. We have a rule about not firing anyone. One guy in my department got mad at a QA guy, grabbed the job folder and threw it across the room. Then he swore at him for a while. (That job had been returned several times because it STILL wasn't working right.)
Our boss was very upset over his behavior and tried to get him fired. He had us all write down the times he's lost his temper and anything else we could think of. He had a BIG list after that. My boss took all this to HR and tried to get him fired but HR wouldn't let him. Instead, he got put on probation and refered to an anger management phone number. It's been several months now and he's still working here.

The people here, for the most part, are very nice to work with. It's a very layed back job.

All of my game programming I do, I do at home or on my down time. I don't, of course, do anything that would bring attention to my computer though. I mostly work on parts of my vector based engine which doesn't look that impressive is you're just seeing a few splines moving on the screen.
(I also browse the web on our T3 connection! )

E:cb woof!

Edited by - dog135 on 2/1/00 5:09:53 PM

Edited by - dog135 on 2/1/00 5:10:15 PM